Term disposable income and personal income Definition: Disposable income (DI) is the total income that can be used by the household sector for either consumption or saving during a given period of time, usually one year. Personal income (PI) is the total income received by the members of the domestic household sector, which may or may not be earned from productive activities during a given period of time, usually one year. Disposable income is after-tax income that is officially calculated as the difference between personal income and personal tax and nontax payments. In the numbers game, personal tax and nontax payments are about 15 percent of personal income, which makes disposable personal income about 85 percent of personal income.